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PHOENIX (CBS5) –
A couple says they were thrown out of a downtown Phoenix restaurant and bar after they shared what they call an innocent hug and kiss. The pair believes they were thrown out because they are women.

“She is the most amazing person who has come into my life,” said Kenyata White of her girlfriend of two years, Aeimee Diaz. Sunday they were at the District, which is located inside the Sheraton Hotel, to celebrate.

“We just kind of sat there in that moment and hugged each other and gave each other a kiss,” White said. But White said shortly after they kissed, a manager walked up to them.

“The management came up to us and told us that we needed to get a room and that our behavior was inappropriate for their establishment and that we needed to leave,” White said.

They did leave, but eventually Diaz went back in to talk with the manager, who told them he was acting on a request from other customers.

Ok, It is going to drive me crazy wondering if the bigots were actually bothered by them being female or be them being intimate females. I would automatically guess the latter, but why would the patrons feel that it had more to do with their gender?

Either way it is stupid pointless bigotry. I makes me angry inside how much hate people exhibit on a day to day basis.

I assume the patrons meant that they got the boot because they were two women who were kissing, rather than trying to imply that everyone would have been copacetic with two dudes having a snog. I don’t think anyone, ever, has tried to make that argument.

“Oh, sure, everyone’s fine with two guys making out, but as soon as women try it, it’s suddenly a big problem!”

ZOMFG, Oh it was much worse than,”… them being female or be them being intimate females.” They were intimate brown females! I”m sure that raised the “icky” factor for those asshole bigots by a factor of ten.
I’m not quite sure how I would have handled this back when I was managing a restaurant, if there was a lot of spit swapping going on (and doesn’t seem like there was)I might have asked them to tone it down a bit(same as if it had been a het couple). They were probably just being obviously in love. I certainly wouldn’t have asked them to leave. Somewhere along the way I would have had to let the jerks know they were being jerks.

In the Sheraton’s response, I got the impression the manager received a slap on the wrist. Now, I am running a high fever, so maybe I’m over reacting, but that seems like an offense that is grounds for dismissal. Giving diversity training in response to blatant discrimination seems equivalent to taking a sexual harassment course for squeezing a woman’s boobs and shouting, “Now entering sexy town.” He overtly and publically shamed them, and his excuse was that the heterosexual white males told him to do so.

Last time I was in a restaurant there there were brown lesbians touching each other and stuff. One of them had the audacity to have her arm around me too, but we didn’t get thrown out. (I hasten to add in all fairness that almost all the patrons in that restaurant were there because they were invited by the brown gay one on the right, so the place would have gotten awful empty …)

@10. I do think you’re over-reacting. The manager didn’t physically assault someone (which is the case in your second example).

I think Sheraton’s response was quick and effective. And the end result will be broader in scope than just one manager’s knowledge. They ought to be given credit for their actions, which are a lot more progressive than I would have otherwise expected.

People can make mistakes in judgment without losing their jobs. Not every incident requires a nuclear attack in response.